Castro prosecutors detail women's captivity

Jul. 31, 2013
|

Ariel Castro is shown in a Cuyahoga County Jail booking photo. / AP

by WKYC-TV, Cleveland

by WKYC-TV, Cleveland

CLEVELAND -- In a memorandum filed on the eve of Ariel Castro's sentencing, prosecutors say they intend to detail how Castro lured three women to his Cleveland house then used physical and mental restraints to control them for a decade.

The three women held captive in the run-down home kept diaries documenting the physical and sexual abuse they suffered on a daily basis, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Each of the victims -- Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus -- was lured to the house, either with a promise of a ride, a visit with Castro's daughter or, in Knight's case, a puppy for her son.

Once in the house, Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty says in the sentencing memorandum, Castro would keep them chained and locked in the upstairs rooms or subjected them to "the cold of the basement and the heat of the attic as punishment techniques."

McGinty said Castro kept a gun "and threatened to shoot the captives if they ever tried to escape."

According to the memo, Castro told his captives that "he had other victims and that some of them made it home but that others had not."

The document states that "the victims of the defendant's heinous crimes did everything humanly possible to retain a sense of normalcy. They were able to mark the passage of time through the maintenance of diaries. Several diary entries document abuse and life as a captive."

Berry wrote to her mother in her diary, even after she knew her mother had died.

"The victims had to watch the rest of the world turn as they were held in captivity. Holidays, world events, and even the passing of Ms. Berry's mother were observed by them, removed from the outside world."

At some point between Aug. 23, 2005, and Oct. 31, 2005, the defendant "forced the three victims into the garage behind his house ... for three days they were kept physically restrained in a vehicle in the garage while the defendant had a visitor at his house."

The document tells of the birth of Berry's daughter on Dec. 25, 2006. Neither the baby nor Berry received any medical treatment. The baby was delivered by Knight in a plastic wading pool. The baby was not breathing when it was born but Knight performed CPR and the baby started breathing.

McGinty wrote that the defendant admitted that he intended to terminate Knight's pregnancy by punching and kicking her in the stomach and starving her for days, something he accomplished when she miscarried.

McGinty says experts will also discuss the Stockholm syndrome to explain how Castro was able to keep the women captive for so long. The Stockholm Syndrome is to become bonded in a strange way with your captor.

In the document, Castro admits that he kept Knight locked up in various rooms using chains and zip ties and having padlocks on exterior doors. He admits he also stuffed a piece of cloth in her mouth to keep her from screaming.

Castro admits "to having the girls chained by their ankles, with only one meal a day, showering infrequently, while he had 'sexual relations' with them. In the end, he claims that he 'gave them all a chance to escape' by leaving the door to Ms. Berry and her child's room unlocked."